Club Clips: September 26, 2019 Edition

Bulb Horn reminds us that the joy is in the driving

The cover story of the May-June edition of the Bulb Horn featured an iconic 1962 Porsche 356B. The classy bimonthly magazine is the main conveyor ofthe Vintage Motor Car Club of America (Dennis Holland, editor at the wheel).

The lavish six-page article is colorful in text and visuals, traversing the early days of that Porsche model. Generally, collectors are familiar with the launch of the 356 in 1948 from the Austrian factory in Gmund. A good number will know the evolution through four generations of 356A through D variants seeing daylight through 1965 thanks to the Reutter factory in Stuttgart, Germany.

The evolution in style and features is tapped in the article, with such tidbits as 78,000 units being made “of which 2,249 standard T6 60-hp coupes were produced in 1962,” wrote David Dennis, with substantive photos also provided by Holland. The writer puts the human element behind the wheel with flashbacks to his early encounters with the sporty Porsche, eventually arriving at ownership of the featured 1962B in 1992, 27 years following those early memories. Evidently, his hope never waned.

Said the writer, “A regular driver for several years, it has become a fair-weather car for challenging driving skills on winding narrow roads in the hills and for VMCCA tours and Rocky Mountain 356 club [sic] rallyes.”He sums up, “It is a performance car — gearing well-matched to its RPM and torque specs, and with great stability on the corners. It is a fun car to drive and attracts much attention. After 26 years, I can’t imagine not having it as a companion.”

All this brings to mind the purpose behind our collector cars. Regardless of age or condition, collector cars of today were made for a single paramount purpose—to be DRIVEN and enjoyed. Static viewing of an old car at rest may be an artistic enterprise resulting in “ooohs” and “aaahs” from onlookers, but the real purpose of that old car’s existence comes when the motor turns and it takes to the road as a mechanical marvel from the past.

The Bulbhorn
Vintage Motor Car Club of America
7501 Manchester Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64138
vmcca.org